What Divides Us
by Kamechan98
Summary: Human AU Following the boys as they go through life as kids and teenagers, trying to survive a school full of homework, stern teachers, bullies, romance, friendship and their lives at home.
1. First Day of School – Part 1

What Divides Us

 **A/N: Okay, this story may not be a updated very often, seeing how I am writing A Million Miles Apart, and that's my biggest priority. This is basically just a story with the turtles as human boys, going to school, eating pizza and having fun together. And I'll write for this story when I feel I need a break from all the space-stuff and all that.**

 **There will be no real plot throughout the 'story', except when I get the idea to write a kind of 'story-arc' like a two or three-parter. And their age might vary from being kids to teenagers in different chapters, but never beyond sixteen; like I said, there's no real plot throughout the stories. And just so you know, I'm still not 100% sure of how schools work in America, so please be nice, alright?**

 **I will try to write as many chapters about the others as I can, but I have a feeling it will be kinda Donnie-centric. When I get new ideas I will put them in the story but if you have ideas or suggestions, feel free to tell me.**

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First Day of School – Part 1

Well, the day had come. First day of second grade. I was brand new in this town, had no friends, and nothing was familiar. My family had just moved to New York City from our house upstate, and let's just say I wasn't too happy about this change. I loved the old house. It was big, had a huge lawn, lots of trees to climb, and it was only a few minutes away from a lake that was perfect to swim and fish in. We still owned the house, so we had somewhere to go during the summer or any holidays, but we had moved away from Northampton because my dad got transferred to New York and we had to move closer. And both Mom and Dad thought it would do me some good to move to a new city, so that I could 'make some friends,' as they said. But I didn't really want any friends; I was fine with being alone and an introvert, so why did we have to move? Couldn't Dad just have bought a small apartment in New York where he could live while he worked and then come home to our house during the weekends? That would've worked too.

I sighed heavily as I got off the school bus and walked towards the big school building. My mom had offered to drop me off at school on her way to work, but I had refused. The last thing I needed was to be seen with my mother on my first day. If I was going to make new friends, I wanted to be myself and not be seen as some kind of momma's boy who needed his mommy to drive him to school. It would only cause bullying or at least teasing - I knew that much about how school and kids worked.

I looked at my watch and saw it was almost eight o'clock, so I started to jog towards the doors. I stopped at a window where I could see my reflection in the glass and took a look at myself. Since it was still August and rather warm outside I had left my jacket at home and was currently sporting an unzipped light-grey hoodie, a purple t-shirt, my cargo shorts and my black converse, with my brown duffle bag thrown over my shoulder. My thick brown hair was tousled from the wind blowing through it, giving it just the right look of easygoing and serious. I looked into my brown eyes and my black 'hipster glasses', as people liked to call them, and sighed heavily.

I hated my glasses and I couldn't wait until I got older and my mom would buy me contact lenses so I could replace these stupidly dorky glasses. The bulky frames painted me up as an even bigger nerd than I already was. I had always felt weird around other kids since I was actually interested in school and learning. Sure, I liked to run around and play like other kids, but I also loved reading and adding fascinating new information to my archives. Especially with math and science. And that's why I was usually alone and sometimes bullied. But the bullying never went beyond being called a few names, like nerd, freak or four-eyes, so it was easy for me to either ignore or figure out their tactics. Nothing I couldn't handle. Well, once a third-grader girl stole my books and hid them in her backpack. That time I had to go to my teacher for help. But other than that, I could handle most of the mean kids at my old school.

I sighed and walked through the school doors, immediately getting confused. The hallway alone was filled with so many kids of different ages running around and I had no idea where to go. Everyone seemed to be going in circles, talking or yelling at their friends so they could be heard and walking in different directions to their classmates. I had no idea where to go, or who to ask for help. I saw a kid with neatly combed black hair wearing a blue dress-shirt with the sleeves folded up to just below his elbows, with a black t-shirt underneath, and carefully tapped him on the shoulder.

"Uh, excuse me? I'm new here- can you tell me where to go? I'm supposed to go to room twelve." The boy turned to me and smiled lightly at me. He had friendly grey-blue eyes and his smile felt genuine and not sarcastic or forced, like so many other kids at my old school did when I tried to talk to them.

"Oh, yeah, sure. My friend and I were on our way there right now. Just come with me." I smiled gratefully and followed him down the hallway and then up a staircase, then down another hallway. A slightly shorter boy with blonde hair and an orange hoodie, a green t-shirt and jeans shorts ran up to us. He had a bright orange backpack slung over his shoulder and a big, bright smile on his face. There were freckles sprinkled all over his cheeks.

"Hey, Leo! You made a new friend?" The boy, who apparently was named Leo, smiled at the other boy and then looked at me. For some reason I smiled back at the two, even though it was rather small, and adjusted the strap over my shoulder.

"Hey, Mikey. I was just showing this kid the way to our classroom. He's new here." Mikey smiled even wider (if it was even possible) and looked me straight in the eyes. His round baby blues seemed to lock onto my soul, but in a friendly way- somehow. It was a strange effect, but his overall happy, innocent appearance made it work.

"Hi, dude! My name's Michelangelo, but you can call me Mikey! And this is my friend Leo! What's your name?" He asked it loudly and reached out his hand for me to grab, and I'll admit, I was a bit taken aback at how straightforward he was and how his whole being was bubbling with happiness and friendliness. His loud voice didn't help much either. It was a new feeling for me, but I quickly shook it off and grabbed his hand and shook it.

"Donatello, but my family calls me Donnie." Mikey and Leo smiled and led me to a room with a world map on the wall, a few vases with colourful flowers on various flat surfaces, and a whiteboard where the words 'Welcome Back!' were written with colourful pens, along with flowers and a big sun drawn around the them. On the wall, right across from the door, were two huge windows that allowed a view of a lawn with a few trees, a swingset, a big climbing frame, monkey bars with rings to swing from and bars to climb on, and two slides, one small and one bigger. Scattered about were a few benches where kids could study, talk with friends or just enjoy the sunlight.

I smiled and sat down at the bench closest to the window, in the first row. I had a feeling I was gonna like it here, even if I didn't make friends. At least the school itself looked pretty nice. But those thoughts were interrupted when a kid with red spiky hair and acid green eyes, standing several inches taller than me and with twice as much muscle on his body, walked up to me, slammed his clenched fist onto the desk and glared at me as though I'd killed his beloved puppy in cold blood.

"Hey, kid! That's _my_ seat. Move it!" I looked up at him, startled out of my thoughts, and out of instinct I felt a little scared- mostly because of his muscles. The always-chattering analytical voice in my head quickly drew the conclusion that this kid could throw me across the room and and beat me up alarmingly easily. But I shook that feeling off and narrowed my eyes at him. I knew from experience that the worst thing you could do was give in to a bully- then he would just keep coming back with his demands and would never quit pushing you around. So I frowned up at him and tried to look defiant.

"I don't see your name on this bench, so why don't you just take another seat and leave me alone?" He was visibly a bit taken aback by my words, but he covered his lapse by raising his fists from the desk, loudly slamming them right back down, pointing his finger at my face, opening is mouth and sucking in a huge breath to scream at me with. However, I got lucky for once as a young woman walked into the room and placed some books on the desk at the front of the classroom, effectively cutting off any tirade that had been coming my way.

"Raphael, stop that immediately and sit down! Class is about to start." Raphael frowned at the teacher, then at me, before he stalked off and plopped down onto another bench. Leo, who was sitting beside me, leaned over to bridge the space between us and whispered to me while the teacher was writing something on the board.

"Don't worry about Raph- he picks on every new student... and some of the old ones, too. We got two new students last year and he tried to scare both of them- and succeeded. You're the first one who's stood up to him. You're pretty brave." I nodded and returned my gaze to the board as the teacher, a young woman with brown hair tied into a bun, finished what she was writing on the board and turned to face us. On her nose was a pair of round glasses and her green eyes looked kind but firm.

"Welcome back from summer vacation, class. Did you have a good time?" The whole class said 'yes' in chorus, except me; I rested my chin in my hand, rolled my eyes and mumbled to myself.

"Yeah, it would've been if I didn't have to move to this stinking city." The teacher, whose name seemed to be Mrs. Foreste, smiled at me and waved me up, and even though I shook my head, she still managed to, somehow, coax me out of my chair. I walked up to the front with a sigh and she put her arm around me, smiling at the class.

"We have a new student in our class today! This is Donatello Jackson, and he just moved here from Northampton. I hope you will treat him nicely and make him feel welcome." I looked out over the sea of students and saw one redheaded girl with pigtails, a yellow t-shirt and freckles on her nose and cheeks, a boy with black hair, messy clothes and a massive gap in his front teeth as three or four were missing, a girl with short black hair, a pair of glasses and a purple tank top, and a pudgy boy with a dorky smile and a blue t-shirt with the Superman logo on the chest. Then I had to sit down again, but I managed to catch a glimpse of that Raphael as he sat at his new desk with a frown and folded arms over his chest. It was clear he didn't really like me. I didn't exactly like him, either.

Our first lesson was about grammar and spelling, but I had a hard time concentrating. It didn't really matter anyway since I already knew how to spell the words in the book and I was really sure of the grammar as well. I just sat there and read in the grammar book to make it look like I was working. It was also a little hard to concentrate since I saw that Raph was glaring at me, a frown on his face. I tried to ignore him and concentrate on my work.

Suddenly I felt something hit me in the back of my head and I turned around to see if anyone had tried to get my attention, but saw that everyone behind me was bent over their exercise books, pencils scribbling eagerly in them. I looked down at the floor and saw a small crumpled paper ball that I assumed someone had thrown at my head. I bent down, picked it up and unfolded it. There was no text or image so I assumed someone had just tried to get on my nerves. And I had an idea of who it was. I shrugged it off and put the paper down in my bag and looked down at my book again.

When the first lesson was over we had a small break and some chose to eat a small sandwich or a fruit, or drink a package of juice. The red-haired girl with pigtails stood up and walked over to me. When she smiled I saw that she had braces but in my eyes, she was kinda pretty. She smiled at me and her blue eyes sparkled with curiosity.

"Hi! My name's April." She said and reached out her hand towards me. I smiled unsurely at her and shook her hand.

"Hi. I'm Donatello, but you can call me Donnie." She smiled at me and I saw she had small dimples in her cheeks. Then she looked at Raph, who was playing with his pencils, and then back at me.

"Don't mind Raph- picks fights with everyone, even some older kids. Just ignore him and don't let him push you around. He only fights with kids that try to fight back." I looked at Raph, then at April, nodded at her and smiled.

"Thanks." Then Mrs. Foreste came back in and sat down at her desk.

"Well, class, let's start again, shall we?" April skipped back to her bench and the lesson went on again. The next lesson was math, and this time I was ready to shine. I knew most kids would call me a swot, but I didn't care. It's not like it was anything new. Mrs. Foreste gave us all a math book and asked us to open page five. She then wrote up a math problem on the blackboard and asked us to solve it. But I didn't need to look in the book, I already knew the answer. I raised my hand and the teacher seemed surprised that I hadn't even consulted the book.

"Yes, Donatello?" I looked over the problem one more time and then gave my answer.

"The answer is twenty-four." The teacher read the problem and visibly did the math in her head, and then nodded with a bright smile.

"Yes, that's right. How did you come up with the answer?" I walked up to the blackboard and took a piece of chalk before breaking down the problem.

"Well, we first had thirty dollars and then used up six, so I subtracted six from thirty, since we no longer have six, and got the answer twenty-four." While I explained how I had solved the math problem, I wrote 30, then 6 under it, drew a straight line under them and then pointed on both numbers. "Now, since I can't subtract six from zero or seven from zero, I 'borrow' ten from the 3 and that makes the first zero ten instead." As I kept on explaining I saw that most of kids didn't really pay attention, but others, like Leo, seemed try and copy what I told them. When I was done I walked back to my bench and sat down again and the lesson went on. I saw that some kids looked at me enviously and I smiled lightly at that. It felt a little good to know that some of the kids in here were jealous of me. But only a little.

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The bell rang and by then it was time for lunch. This time I didn't need to ask for directions, I just followed the rest of the kids down the stairs and down a hallway to a hall filled with tables and kids who had either sat down to eat or stood in line to get something to eat from the cafeteria. But I had brought lunch with me so I just walked past the line where Leo, Mikey, April, Raph and the rest of the class now stood and waited.

I saw that a bunch of kids, both older and younger, had chosen to sit outside since the sun was still out and it was rather warm, so I chose to do the same. I walked out and sat down in the shadow of an old, gnarled oak and opened my bag. I picked up my purple lunch box and opened it. Inside was a sandwich, a red apple, and a few strawberries and carrot sticks. Inside was also my green water bottle filled with milk. I sighed in content as I took a bite of the sandwich and leaned against the trunk of the tree. I really liked the summer, and even if school had started, I still thought of it as late summer rather than early autumn like some kids at my old school did. I guess since people say that school starts 'next fall' and we have most of the summer to be lazy, go on vacation and do other fun things, they see the season when school starts again as something separate.

As I started to eat my lunch, except for the apple, which I always saved for last, I picked up a book from my bag and started to read. My dad had bought me this book when I turned eight a few weeks ago and I had already read it, like, twenty times. It was a book about the solar system, adapted for kids, of course. But it was adapted for older kids, much older, and I loved it. I stretched out my bare legs in cool grass and enjoyed the warm air. I had just started to read about Jupiter when I was interrupted.

"Oh, here you are." I looked up from the book and saw both Leo and Mikey standing there with red plastic trays of food, looking down at me. I was a bit surprised, so I closed my book and put it aside.

"Uh, hey. Did you want something?" I tried to sound nice, but I wasn't sure it worked so well. Mikey placed his tray down in the grass and sat down in front of me.

"No, not really, dude. We were just wondering if it's okay if we sit here? You look kinda lonely." Yeah, and that's how I liked it. But I didn't say that. I just shrugged and looked back down at my book, longing to pick it up again as my manners kept my hands firmly away from it.

"It's a free country. You can sit wherever you want, but I'm not really good at talking to people, so I can't promise I'll be very good company." Leo just shrugged, put his tray down in the grass and took a bite out of his sandwich. When there wasn't any speaking done for a good twenty seconds, my desire to read overcame my sense of politeness and I slowly opened my book back up and resumed reading. _Jupiter is two and a half times bigger than all the other planets in the solar system combined? Is that including Pluto, considering it's part of the solar system but technically not considered a planet? What stance is the author coming from? Wait, what's the publishing date on this? I wonder if it came before Pluto was demoted... I mean, it wasn't that long ago. Does Pluto's inclusion really make a difference to the the fact, though? I suppose if I'm wanting exact data, then yes, since it would add mass, but it's just for generalized comparison_ \- My train of thought was utterly derailed when the book- and the diagram of Jupiter's largest moon, Ganymede, that I was studying distractedly as I thought- was suddenly not in front of me. Blinking out of my theorizing, I finally located the missing book. Mikey was holding it, looking at the page I was on. At first I was a bit shocked, but I quickly got irritated and tried to snatch it back.

"Hey! Give that back!" Mikey just avoided me and ignored me,skimming through the book with obvious disinterest.

"How can you read this stuff? There're no superheroes, monsters or mutants in it!" Leo rolled his eyes and also tried to snatch the book away from his friend. I crossed my arms over my chest and tried to look smug.

"Well, some people don't like to read anything but comics and science fiction. I happen to like reading about the universe and the planets. So, if you wouldn't mind." When I said 'wouldn't' I managed to get ahold of the book and snatched it from the blonde boy. He looked at me with wide, surprised eyes, then smirked and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Oh, really? Well, then, I'm not surprised you don't have any friends." Leo, who had just brought his milk carton to his lips, choked on the milk and hit his friend over the head.

" _Mikey_!" I just shook my head and shrugged.

"No, no, it's okay. No kid has ever really wanted to be friends with me and I'm cool with it. It's the way it is: some have friends, some don't. That's life for ya." Leo and Mikey shared a look and then stared at me with pity. I just rolled my eyes at their looks, returning my gaze to my book and starting to read about Jupiter again, when I felt a hand on my shoulder, making me look up again. Leo smiled at me and Mikey grinned while sipping on his juicebox.

"Well, you have us now. We could be your friends, if you'd like." I raised a brow dubiously. Could I trust these two? Or would they just ditch me? Or were they doing this because they pitied me? I shrugged off his hand and took a bite from my apple.

"Look, I'm used to being alone all the time. I'm fine with it, and I don't need you to pity me. So thanks, but no thanks." Leo grabbed my book, closed it and kept it an arm's length away from me. I dropped my apple to the ground and tried to grab the book back, but it was still tauntingly inches away from my fingers.

"Hey! Give me my book back! Knock it off!" Leo held it up over his head and looked at me seriously. Mikey placed his arm around my shoulders and also tried to look serious.

"We don't pity you. I just think nobody should be alone just because they're not good at talking or making friends." I narrowed my eyes at him and snatched my book out of Leo's hand.

"Yeah? Well, you're not exactly convincing me when you keep stealing my things!" I put it back in my bag and picked up my apple from the grass. Leo placed his hand on my shoulder.

"Maybe not, but still. You're not even trying. Just because you're used to being alone doesn't mean you like it, right?" I halted from taking another bite out of my apple. I looked at Leo. I thought for a second and lowered my hand.

"No, I guess not." Mikey squeezed me with his arm around my shoulders and ruffled my hair with his other hand. And, despite myself, I couldn't help but laugh when he did.

"See? Life is so much more fun when you have friends to share the fun with! Trust me on that." I smiled back at him and threw my apple, watching it sail through the air until it landed in the garbage can a few feet away from us. For the rest of our lunch break I sat under that tree and talked with Leo and Mikey, and I found myself enjoying their company. Yes, Mikey was a bit random, but he was still more fun than I had first thought. When I'd first seen him, I'd thought he was super annoying, but now I could see that he had a good sense of humour. And Leo wasn't quite as uptight as I had thought when I met him. He was a fan of that cheesy Space Heroes cartoon that I had heard of.

I had a feeling I might like this city more than I thought.

 _To be continued..._

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 **A/N: And done! It only took more than a year to finish. That's not so long, right? Anyway, this and the next chapter will probably be the only chapters that have a P.O.V from one character, since I wanna try something new and don't have the patience to rewrite the whole thing. And if you have an idea for a story for me to write, please feel free to send me requests or ideas! :)**

 **I hope you liked this first chapter of my new story and please review, favorite and follow! G'night everybody!**


	2. First day of school – Part 2

What Divides Us

 **A/N: Hi, guys! Happy New Year, and I hope you've had a great 2017 so far!**

 **Like I said, I may not update this story very often, since this is more of a side project, and not my major focus right now. However, I have decided that this just being a couple of stories that aren't really tied together, is gonna end up really boring for me to write. I want this to be an actual story, with conflict, consequence and a plot. So, I am going to try and work up a plot, villains/bad guys and a semi-decent plot. So if you have any ideas, don't be shy to tell me.**

 **Anyway, I hope you'll enjoy this part 2 of my first chapter and please review, favorite and follow!**

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First day of school – Part 2

As the day went by I found myself really enjoying this new school and the kids in it. Leo and Mikey had been really friendly throughout the whole day. In return, I had tried to help them with the work they found hard during classes, such math or grammar or whatever it was they had trouble with. And during no point of the day did I feel awkward or uncomfortable around them. I also talked little bit with April, who sat perched on the edge of her seat, a constant presence behind my right shoulder. She was also pretty good at math and said she wanted to be a scientist when she grew up, since her father was one.

"Man, I wish my dad was a scientist. He's just a dumb news reporter." April had just laughed and asked me about Northampton and my old home.

All in all, my day had been pretty good. My teacher was really nice, I had some new friends and the school seemed like a really good place. I really found myself liking it here.

There was only one little problem with my day; Raphael. He didn't say or do anything, but during every lesson I could feel his glare on the back of my neck. I tried to ignore him, but it was really hard when he stared so hard at my nape that I could practically feel it burning two eye-shaped holes into the back of my head. Leo and Mikey told me that I should just ignore him, which I would have tried to do regardless... but it's not exactly easy to ignore someone who was clearly waiting for his glare to reach maximum capacity and magically produce and launch a spear into my skull. He took every chance he got to make fun of me or push me around. During our lunch break, while I had been talking to Mikey and Leo and got to know them better, a big red rubber ball came flying and hit me in the head, making my glasses fall off and almost sending me sprawling. That is to say, I would have been, if Mikey hadn't caught me before I could faceplant on the ground. Leo stood up when he saw what happened and looked in the direction the ball had come from, and he leveled a glare on Raph, who was standing with Casey about ten feet away with a big grin on his face.

"Oh, sorry! I sure hope I didn't hurt the little geek too much! Wouldn't want that big brain to get knocked around, would we?" He yelled at us with layers of exaggerated sympathy and obvious mockery in his voice, Casey laughing beside him like the mindless little lackey he was. For a split second, I was ready to go over there and give them a piece of my mind. Then I calmed myself down and let out a deep breath while Leo continued to glare at the offending boy. He was clearly about to stomp over to him to give him a stern talking-to, but I grabbed his arm before he could.

"No! Just let it go, Leo. One thing that I've learned from bullies is that you should never allow them to see that they make you upset. That means they've won. Besides, he's not worth the effort. Don't give him the satisfaction." Leo hadn't looked entirely convinced, but he chose to sit down again and tried to ignore Raph and Casey's loud voices as they kept playing with their ball, throwing random childish insults my way whenever they could think of them.

Later, during a small break between our history and geography classes, Raphael walked past Leo, April, Mikey and I while talking to Casey, and when he passed me, he dropped a half-eaten sandwich in my lap. A ham and lettuce sandwich that dripped with mustard. I was fairly used to bullies, so this wasn't anything new, and I just took the stupid sandwich and threw it into the trash bin right next to us, ready to brush it off like I always did with guys like him. But April had gotten up from the bench and was looking after Raph with narrowed eyes.

"Hey! Do you _mind_?" She cried, outraged on my behalf; it was almost heartwarming how readily they would jump to my defense. I had rarely found friends like this before.

Raph turned around to look at her, then at me, then back at April. He smirked and shook his head.

"Not at all. Thanks for pitching that sandwich for me." I gritted my teeth, but swallowed down my anger and grabbed April's shoulder, coaxing her back down onto the bench.

"It's okay, April. I'm used to it; it's nothing I can't handle. Just don't mind him." She looked appalled as she stared into my eyes with her big blues, and I felt Leo's hand on my shoulder.

"But, Donnie, you shouldn't _have_ to be used to it. You shouldn't have to get used to somebody being a jerk to you- that's not okay." Mikey shook his head and his golden locks flew in all directions, his hair seemingly having a mind of its own.

"Leo's right, dude! Just because Raph's being a jerk doesn't mean you should let him!" I shrugged and pushed my glasses up further on my nose.

"Well, he's just doing this because I stole his seat today. He'll get tired of it eventually. All bullies do. I'm sure he has better things to do than picking on a kid who doesn't fight back. And if he's still at it tomorrow, I'll take matter into my own hands. I'm not gonna let him turn me into a doormat." Neither April, Leo or Mikey seemed entirely convinced, but class was about to start, so we didn't have time to talk more about it.

The rest of the day went by pretty fast. We had two more classes before we were finally free to leave for the day. In the mess of kids hurrying to their lockers and getting their stuff before running down the stairs and out of the school, I decided to wait until most of them were already out before I started to collect my things and leave the classroom. Leo and Mikey were heading towards the stairs, but looked up when they saw me.

"Hey, dude! Want to walk home together?" Mikey smiled widely at me, but I shook my head politely.

"No, I'm taking the bus home. I'll see you tomorrow, though!" They waved at me and then started to run down the stairs and out of the school. I smiled as I opened my locker. Today had gone so much better than I had expected it to. I had friends! My first real friends. Granted, I didn't know them very well yet, but still. It felt pretty nice to have someone to talk to during the breaks or at lunch. Hopefully I could make friends with the other kids, too, but I wasn't aiming too high on that one. I was happy with the ones I had for now.

I grabbed my books, notebooks and pens and stuffed them into my duffle bag and was just about to to hurry down to the bus when I glanced back into the classroom and saw that Raph was still there. Mrs. Foreste was gone for the moment, so I didn't understand why he would still be in class. He had a pen in his hand and a book in front of him, a frustrated look on his face. I crept closer to the door and peeked inside to get a better look. When I still couldn't see what he was doing, I sneaked into the room and walked as quietly as I could up to Raph's bench, but chose to stay behind him so he wouldn't see me.

Now that I was closer, I could see he was working on the same math pages we had worked on earlier today, but was obviously struggling with it. I looked down at the paper he was writing on, but he had not written anything down other than a few scribbles. He rested his chin in one hand and glared down at the book in front of him.

"Stupid math. Who needs it, anyway?" He grumbled to himself and sighed heavily. And, despite everything he had said and done today, my stupidly tender heart started to feel sorry for him.

Now, I know what you're thinking: why would I sympathise with a bully? Shouldn't the proper reaction be closer to schadenfreude, or at least a little smugness over the fact that he was not doing well? That I was one-upping him at something? Well, normally I would, if this was my old school, but this was a guy who has just been a little mean over the course of one day. I hadn't grown to hate him or even to think terribly badly about him yet. I mean, I had never even thought too awfully about the bullies at my old school. And now, when his smug smirk and nasty attitude was gone and he looked more off-guard and, for lack of a better word, vulnerable, I couldn't help but feel sorry for him.

I looked towards the door. The bus would leave soon, and I knew my parents would not be able to pick me up. But this guy needed my help, even though I assumed his pride would not allow me to- at least not right away. But I had had to try. And I could always walk home, and if I got lost I could look up my address on my phone or ask for directions. I nodded to myself and got closer to my red-haired classmate. I bit my lip nervously, swallowed and then cleared my throat to get his attention. He looked up from his book at me. When he saw it was me, he narrowed his eyes and immediately went on the defensive.

"What do _you_ want?" I took a step back and my instincts told me to run and leave him alone with his math problems. But I swallowed down that instinct and tried to smile at him, putting my bag down on the floor.

"I, um, thought you might need a little help?" He glared at me, but for a small second I could swear that I saw a glimpse of shock in his eyes.

"I don't want your help! So why don't you just mind your own business and get lost!" He looked down at the book again, keeping his eyes locked on the page. I winced a little at his loud voice, but tried my hardest not to show it and grabbed a chair, sitting down next to his desk, and looked down at the page in his book. Hm. Something I was already pretty good at. I looked at the first problem on the page.

"Hm, nineteen plus thirty-four. That's a good problem to start on." He looked up at me with surprise and annoyance. Surprise because I was still there, and annoyance because I was still there.

"Dude, why are you still here? Can't you take a hint?" I ignored him and grabbed a pen out of my bag and ripped a piece of paper from my notebook.

"Okay, so nineteen and thirty-four are both very big numbers, and you can't figure them out as easily by counting on your fingers as you can with two plus two, right? Well, there's a much easier way to figure it out." I wrote a 19, then a 34 under it and drew a line under both. "Okay, so first we add nine with four." I pointed at the 9 in nineteen and the 4 in thirty-four. And in the corner of my eye I saw that, lo and behold, Raph was seemingly paying a bit of attention to what I was saying. I turned to look at him.

"Okay, so what's nine plus four?" Raph bit his lower lip and seemed to be in deep thought. He thought for a few seconds, getting more and more frustrated, and then slammed his fist on the desktop.

"I don't know, okay!?" He looked away and rested his head in both hands. I looked at him and tried to think of something good to say without sounding condescending.

"You... don't know? Um, don't take this the wrong way, but can't you count past ten?" He glared up at me and I jumped back, almost thinking he was gonna hit me. But he just stared me down, his green eyes almost burning holes into my face.

"Of course I can! What, you thought I couldn't? You think I'm stupid? Huh, do ya? Do ya?!" I raised my hands defensively and shook my head.

"No! I never said that! I just thought that you might have trouble with counting and wanted to check so that I can help you better- that's all." I took a deep breath and sat up straight in my chair. "You know, if you have trouble counting in your head, you can just use your fingers. There's nothing wrong with that, if that's the problem." His anger weakened and his face was now just a frown of embarrassment.

"It's stupid. I'm eight years old! I should be able to count without looking at my fingers like some kindergarten brat." I gave him a wry smile and shrugged.

"But it's nothing to be ashamed of. If that's the best way for you to learn or solve the problem, who cares what anybody else thinks? Besides, I bet a lot of kids in our class does that too; you're not the only one." He looked away from me, but his defensive walls seemed to have crumbled by now. I smiled as an idea entered my head.

"And, you know, if it bothers you so much that others might see it, you could always count on your fingers under the desk." He looked up, a bit surprised. I smiled. "Yeah, you can just count with your hands hidden underneath. You know how many fingers you have, and you can count quietly if doing it in your head is tough for you." Raph looked down at his lap, some of his spiky hair falling into his face.

"Yeah, I guess you're right." I grabbed the pen again and turned back to the paper in front of me, pushing it a little in Raph's direction so he could see it better.

"Now, let's try again. What's four plus nine?" Raph looked up at the ceiling and I could see his mouth moving, showing that he was counting silently, and I could only assume that he was counting on his fingers, going by the slight movements of his arms. Raph looked down at me.

"Thirteen?" I smiled and nodded.

"Right! Now, you write the three here," I wrote a 3 under the line and the 4 in thirty-four, "and the one here," and I wrote the 1 over the other 1 from nineteen. "Now, the one we added here is added the the number already here. So it's two plus three. Which is..." I didn't even have to wait a second for that one.

"Five!" Raph announced with a smile. I smiled back and wrote the 5 in front of the 3 already written down.

"Right! Which makes fifty-three, put together. See?" I gave him the paper and he looked it over. Then he smiled at me.

"Yeah, I think I get it now. Finally I won't feel stupid during math!" Then his smile fell off his face and he looked obviously confused. "I don't get it. Why are you helping me? I've been a jerk to you all day." I shrugged and put my things back in my bag.

"'Cause we both go to this school, this class, and it's not gonna be fun for either one of us if we're just gonna be out to get each other every day. Besides, I believe that there's good in everyone, even if it's not always a lot." I looked into his eyes. "So can we at least be cool with each other?" I stretched out my hand for him to take. He looked at me, down at my hand, back at my face, then smiled and shook it.

"Sure." He frowned a little. "As long as you don't tell anyone about what happened here today." I raised my hands defensively but with a small, wry smile.

"I won't tell anyone; promise." I looked down at my watch and stood up. "I should probably get home now. I need to be home before my parents are." Raph nodded and started to pack up his own things.

"Yeah, I should probably get going, too. I, uh..." He looked at me awkwardly and looked down at the floor, scraping his foot on it. "Thank you. For, you know..." I nodded and slung my bag over my shoulder.

"Yeah. I know. See ya!" I ran out of the classroom and out the front doors. The day was still warm so I took off my hoodie and wrapped it around my waist. Then I took my phone out of my pocket and opened the GPS app, typed in my address and watched as the directions showed up on the display. It wasn't very far, but because I was still so very knew to this city, I wasn't entirely sure I knew the way. I started up the street with my nose on my phone, following the directions and the little blue dot that showed where I was. It worked out pretty well for me. I only bumped into three guys and only almost walked straight into a mailbox once while walking down the street.

It was about a twenty minute walk, so it didn't take very long before I finally reached the street we lived on, but I made a mental note to take the bus every day until I felt more at home in this city. Or at least walk with someone else who already did. I ran up the stairs until I reached the fifth floor, dug the keys out of my bag and let myself inside. As I expected, no one was home right now, so I just ran into the kitchen, grabbed an apple and a small bag of chips and retreated to my room, closing the door behind me, all the while trying not to trip over the boxes we still had to unpack.

My room was still not entirely finished. The walls were still not repainted in the colour I wanted them to be and the only things set up were my bed, desk, and the computer chair. Sure, some of my personal stuff, like books, my laptop and some of my clothes were unpacked, but there was still work to be done. I sat down at my desk and pulled out my math book to do my homework before Mom came home from her new job at the hospital. I took a bite of the apple and started to work through the math problems Mrs. Foreste had written up for us to do until Wednesday. Not that it was that hard to do, really.

13 + 18 = 31... 14 + 38 = 52... 16 + 77 = 93. It was really easy, but I think I started to work on more than I should have, 'cause when I heard the front door open and close, it had been over an hour. I looked over the paper and realized I had worked on way more than was necessary. I shrugged and closed the book. Not that it mattered; I was probably ahead of most kids in our class, and that was certainly better than the alternative.

My mom opened the door to my room and peeked in. Her brown hair was tied in her usual work bun, as I liked to call it, and she was still dressed in her favorite purple scrubs. She smiled at me tiredly and came into my room, closing the door behind her.

"Hi, Baby. How was your first day of school?" I smiled at her and stood from my chair.

"Hi, Mom! It was pretty good, actually. I've made some new friends, and the teacher's really nice." I paused for a second and thought over what I was gonna say next and then smiled widely at her. "I think I'm really gonna like it here." She beamed and hugged me close, stroking my hair with one hand and resting the other on my back.

"Oh, that's wonderful, honey! I'm so happy for you. I'd really hoped you would be able to make some friends now that we've moved." She gently let go of me and looked down at her wristwatch. "Oh dear, it's getting late. I think we'll just order pizza for tonight; I'm too tired to cook anything right now. That works for you, right?" I nodded and followed her out into the kitchen. While Mom called the closest pizza parlor, I helped set the table. Not that there was much to do. After Mom finally terminated the call, she sat down at the table beside me while we waited for the pizza and looked me in the eyes with a big, genuine albeit tired smile- she always looked beautiful when she smiled; well, she was always the most beautiful mom in the world to me, but something about the way her eyes crinkled at the corners and the way they lit up made her seem like a painting I once saw on a field trip- almost too pretty to be real. On top of that, her smile was totally contagious, no matter what mood I was in.

I smiled back at her, even though, while the mood was a happy one in general, nothing had been said to truly smile so happily about. That was just the effect she had on me, I guess.

"Now, I want to hear more about your day, Don. I want to hear every detail!" My smile widened and I started to talk.

* * *

The next day I was more eager to go to school than I ever remembered being, and the moment my alarm went off, I flew out of bed and ran into the bathroom to take a shower. I could smell pancakes throughout the house and knew that was a good sign. Mom always cooked when she was in a good mood, which hadn't been as often lately, since things had been so stressful with us moving. So it felt good to know that last night's happiness had carried into today.

I personally was also glad that Mom was cooking because if Dad were the one making breakfast this morning, I would be waking up to the smell of something burnt with jelly haphazardly smeared on it.

Dad wasn't exactly a bad cook, but Mom's food was much better than his. Good thing he knew that, too. Whenever Mom was working late and Dad had to make food, I could almost always count on something simple, like takeout or TV dinners. Dad is good at a lot of things- he taught me how to fish, swim, climb trees and ride my bicycle. But things like cooking and cleaning were... not exactly his thing.

I stepped out of the shower and dug some clothes out of one of the cardboard boxes. It was a good thing we'd marked all our boxes, but it was still hard to find everything. I pulled out a pair of jeans and a button shirt and dressed as quickly as I could while doing my best to keep my glasses from falling off my face, and then ran out into the kitchen. Mom was standing by the stove with a plate of pancakes beside her. She looked up when she heard me enter and smiled cheerfully.

"Good morning, Donnie! Did you sleep well?" I nodded and went over to hug her.

"'Morning, Mom!" She hugged me with one arm, and then let me go, gently pushing me to the table and telling me that breakfast would soon be done. Dad looked up from his newspaper and smiled lightly at me.

"Mornin', Sport. Did you have a good day at school yesterday?" I sat down beside him and nodded.

"Yeah! It was so much better than I thought it was gonna be. I made new friends! And the teacher is great!" He ruffled my hair with a chuckle.

"That's great, Son. I knew you would like it here." He put his newspaper aside and turned to look straight at me. "You know, I've been thinking about this weekend. My new job has given me a bigger salary, so I was thinking maybe we should go out and look at a new bike. Or maybe a skateboard?" My jaw hit the ground and my eyes widened.

"Really?" He nodded and placed his hand on my shoulder.

"Sure. You've had your bike for a little while now, and you're growing like a weed. I think you're getting too big for it, so I'd say it's time you get a better one. Besides, I know how much you hate taking the bus to school. Given how fast you learn how to find your way, I think you'll be taking your bike to school by next Monday, if not earlier. So what do you say?" 'What do you say', he says. What kind of question is that? I nodded and launched forward, hugging my father tightly.

"Thanks, Dad! You're the best!" He chuckled and patted me on the back. Mom came up to the table and placed a plate of pancakes and a glass of milk in front of me.

"Here you go, Sweetie." She stroked my hair and kissed me on the forehead. "Now hurry and eat up. You can't miss that bus." I nodded and ate as quickly as I could. Dad drank the last of his coffee, then stood up and grabbed his briefcase, walked over to Mom and kissed her on the cheek.

"Well, I have to leave now. You have a good day at work, Honey." He then ran his fingers through my hair. "See ya tonight, Son." Then he left the kitchen and I heard the door open and close after him. I hurried to eat my own breakfast while my mom took out a package of apple juice and a banana and put them in my duffle bag. She looked at the time.

"Donnie, the bus will be here in ten minutes. You'd better go and brush your teeth before you have to go." I swallowed the last of the milk in my glass, stood up from the table and hurried to the bathroom to brush my teeth, ran back into the kitchen to grab my bag from my mother, let her hug me goodbye, and hurried to the shoe closet. I pulled on my shoes, hurriedly tied the laces and ran out the door.

"Bye, Mom! See you later!" I scrambled down the stairs, almost ran into an old lady with a dog in her arms, gave a quick apology, and continued on. Though I did hear the lady mutter 'kids these days', as I ran out the front door. I didn't have to wait long for the bus, as it came only about two minutes later. The driver nodded at me with a sour look on his face, as if to say 'you getting on or what?', so I hurried inside and sat down in a window seat so I could look down the street and remember the way from home to school, so I wouldn't have to take the bus for more than a week.

I quickly got out of my seat and ran off the bus as it stopped before the school, but almost immediately had to jump back into the bus again as a kid on a skateboard skated by just in front of me at a hundred miles per hour. Once it had run past, I got off the bus and looked after the kid and the runaway skateboard. After a few seconds of looking at him with narrowed eyes, I could see that it was Mikey. He jumped up with the skateboard on a rail, glided down, turned left as he almost ran into a tree, changed direction and came towards me, stopping right beside me and taking off his orange helmet.

"Hey, Donnie!" He smiled so widely I almost thought his face was gonna rip in two, and his blue eyes were full of energy. "Sorry I almost ran into you. I didn't think they would open the doors so fast. I'm usually faster than they are." I rolled my eyes and adjusted the strap of my bag over my shoulder.

"It's cool. Just watch where you're going next time, alright? Seriously, you were about to slam your head into that tree!" He made a 'pfft' sound at me and dismissively waved his hand, picking up his skateboard and placing it under his arm.

"No way, dude. I'm way too good to hit something that can't move! I am the Skate Master!" I rolled my eyes again, then looked over my shoulder as a familiar voice called our names.

"Hi, guys!" Leo came up to us with his dark blue Space Heroes backpack over his shoulder and his dark hair ruffled by the warm breeze. "Good to see Mikey hasn't killed you yet. With the way he rides that thing, it's only a matter of time before he does." Mikey rolled his eyes and looked away from us.

"Pchht, everyone's a critic," he muttered and shook some of his golden locks out of his face. I couldn't help but laugh at their banter, but I also found myself looking for Raph. Not that I had expected him to greet me as his friend or anything, but I was wondering where he was, since I couldn't see him anywhere on the playground or in front of the school. Mikey nudged my shoulder.

"Who're you looking for?" I quickly turned to him and said "Nothing!" almost a little too quickly, but they seemed to ignore it anyway. Leo waved at us.

"Come on, now! The bell will ring soon; we'd better get inside." We started toward the building and Mikey looked at me.

"Do you ride?" I looked at him dumbfoundedly with my head tilted to the side. "You know, skateboard! There's a skate park down the street, in case you wanna check it out." I smiled and laughed at him and the very idea of me on a skateboard, shaking my head.

"No, I've never stood on a skateboard in my whole life. Well, I did get to try my older cousin's skateboard and roll a few feet while he held my hand when I was five, but that's it. I just have a bike." Mikey's eyes widened and his jaw almost hit the ground.

"What?! Really? How? How can you never have learned how to skateboard? What sick, twisted reality did you come from?" I looked at him with a slightly raised eyebrow, my lips lightly pressed together and my eyes wide and confused.

"Northampton?"

Mikey tilted his head. "Where's that?"

I shrugged. "Upstate. Not too far away from here, actually. I grew up on my family's old farmhouse until we had to move here."

Mikey smirked deviously and leaned closer to me so he could whisper in my ear, "I'll make sure to beat those old farmer ways out of you, hillbilly." I leaned away from him, trying not to look weirded out, and Leo rolled his eyes and butted in.

"Mikey, not everyone rides a skateboard. And that's okay. Maybe he doesn't even like sporty stuff, or maybe he doesn't like skateboarding specifically. I don't skateboard, either." Mikey scoffed and rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, but you're _already_ boring. I'm trying to save him from your horrible fate." Leo frowned at him and folded his arms over his chest.

"I am _not_ boring! I am responsible and dedicated!" Mikey leaned closer to me.

"Again, b-o-r-i-n-g." Leo rolled his eyes while Mikey and I were laughing at him when someone suddenly stepped in our way.

"Well, well, well. What do we have here? A couple of second-graders who don't need their lunch money, I presume." It was a big kid, maybe a fourth- or fifth-grader. He had tattered jeans and a t-shirt that almost looked too small for his big, muscular arms. His jet black hair was hanging over his face and his smirk resembled a troll's from any fairy tail I had heard when I was a kid. Mikey immediately cowered behind me and I was tempted to hide behind Leo, but decided to not be a weak bunny this time and tried my hardest to look tough when I saw that Leo did.

"Leave us alone! Go mind your own business," he ordered, suddenly sounding older than he was, and took a step forward, as if to protect me and Mikey. The guy just sneered at him and took a few steps forward, trying to scare Leo by showing off his size.

"Wow, we got a brave one here. You think you're something special, Hamato? Just because your dad is a self-defence teacher?" Though Leo did lose his tough glare, he stood his ground and stared up at the guy.

"Leave us alone, Hun! Aren't you supposed to be in class?" Hun just scoffed at him.

"Aren't you supposed to be in class?" He mocked Leo's words in a whiny falsetto before he shoved his face up in Leo's. "Aren't you still supposed to be in kindergarten? I mean, you three are nothing but babies. Come back when you've grown up." He turned to Mikey and shoved him; not hard enough to knock him to the ground, but enough to make him stumble. "Well, maybe some should stay with the babies longer than others." Mikey's face was scrunched up with both hurt and anger and he looked Hun straight in the eyes, though his voice did quiver a little.

"Go p-pick on someone your own size!" Hun just laughed at him and looked ready to push him again, but I was done being a wallflower, so I wormed in between Mikey and Hun, gave him my best angry face and tried to look as tough as Leo had earlier.

"Hey, cut it out, you big coward." To emphasize my point, I kicked him as hard as I could in the shin. He did pull himself back, but not because it hurt- in fact, I don't think he even felt it- but out of shock. He stared down at me for a second. Then he smirked at me and leaned down to look me in the eyes.

"Well, well, well. What is this I see? A bit of fresh meat? Well, since you're new I'm not going to hit you too hard, but you should really learn your place," He reached out and took my glasses and held them over our heads. "Four-eyes. Or you're just gonna get in trouble."

I tried and failed to see where my glasses were; my eyesight was especially bad, and I needed my glasses to be able to do most of anything. I automatically began squinting and then widening my eyes, hoping to find some way for my stupid pupils to focus on _something_. All I could make out was a very, very blurry image of the scene before me, unable to make out any fine details. It was frustrating, to say the least, and I hated it every time.

I heard Leo and Mikey cry out in anger, "Hey! Give those back!"

"Come on, dude, cut it out! He can't see!" I attempted to make out how far away he was, whose hands those were being held up, who was standing beside me, but the only thing I could truly see was a big blob of a mane of black hair and an equally black t-shirt. And when I accidentally touched Hun's arm, he just shoved me to the ground, making me scrape my elbows and hands on the concrete. I felt someone's- probably Mikey's- hands on my shoulders, and he helped me sit up just as another voice joined the cacophony.

"HEY!" All heads turned to the newcomer, and though I couldn't see that far away, I recognised the voice as Raph's. "You heard 'em! Cut it out!" Hun turned towards him and seemed to forget about us for a second, laughing lightly at Raph.

"Coming to play the hero, Kuruma? Grown sick of fightin' my guys so you have to come to defend the weaklings?" Raph didn't acknowledge the taunts; he stepped closer until I could see him, then just stood defiantly.

"Give him back his glasses, Hun!" Hun laughed, and from the sound of it, he seemed to hit one hand on his chest.

"Why don't you come and get them? But watch out, 'cuz these are really fragile and sometimes I don't know my own strength. Wouldn't want them to break, now, would we?" Raph took another step forward, and I felt a little scared. I mean, Raph was big for his age and had a lot of muscles for still being so young, but I still found it hard to believe he could take this guy all alone.

"You don't scare me, Hun-" He was cut off as Hun shoved him as hard as he could and he grunted as he hit the ground, Hun standing threateningly over him.

"Scared now?" Raph turned his head up towards the looming blob of Hun, but I got the feeling that he was anything but scared, if what I had heard about him was true. He seemed to look up at Hun and was leaning back on his elbows, but that was all I could make out. Hun chuckled and leaned down. "Now you're not so tough, you little-" Now it was his turn to get cut off as I could make out Raph's cargo pants shoot out, and as Hun cried out in pain, I drew the conclusion that Raph had kicked Hun in the chest. Leo shot forward and caught something, and then turned to me and placed that something in my hand- my glasses. I quickly put them on and had to blink a few times as the image got sharper. When I finally could see clearly again, I could see that Hun now glared down at Raph and had one hand on his chest, where Raph most likely had kicked him.

"Ugh, you just won't learn your lesson, will you?" He placed a hand on Raph's chest to pin him to the ground and raised a fist to hit him across the face. Raph tried to get his hand off, but was unsuccessful. I felt my body get tense and, without thinking for a second, I grabbed my bag, stood up and swung it as hard as I could, hitting Hun in the back of the head. He cried out in pain and had to get off of Raph's chest as he stumbled forward. Raph looked first at Hun with wide eyes, then up at me with a little admiration. Very little. After he had recovered from the hit, Hun looked over at me murderously.

"Why, you little..." He ran forward to hit me, but Leo got in between, stooped low to the ground and delivered a high kick up at Hun's chest, which made him stumble back again, in Raph's direction. Raph was waiting and delivered a punch to his back. Hun stumbled. And Mikey dropped his skateboard on the ground, got onto it and picked up speed. He zoomed past Hun, grabbed his elbow and turned to the left, making Hun jerk to the left and twirl around in circles until Mikey decided he'd had enough and let go. At this point Hun was so dizzy he could barely stand up straight, so I ran past Leo, got down on all fours behind Hun and stuck my leg out so I could trip him. My foot hit his lower calf, making him fall backward and trip over me. He hit the ground with a loud yell of pain, and I hurried to get back to the others, a few feet away from him, in case he wanted to fight some more. He groaned as he got back up on his feet, glaring daggers at us. Raph had his fists clenched and eyes narrowed, Leo stood in some kind of defensive stance and Mikey held his skateboard up like a weapon. I didn't have anything other than my bag, and I got the feeling it wouldn't work a second time, nor would holding it threateningly make me look any more intimidating, so I simply crossed my arms over my chest and tried looking stern. Hun growled and got ready to pounce when,

 _*RING!*_

The bell rang, signalling that all students had to get inside and go to class. Hun looked up, both shocked and angry at the timing, then looked back at us, as if deciding if it was worth being late because he had a score to settle with us, then pointed at us threateningly.

"This isn't over." His eyes trailed over all of us, from Raph to Leo to me to Mikey. "This isn't over by a long shot!" Then he turned tail and ran towards the building, still holding a hand over his chest, the pain from Leo and Raph's kicks clearly still there. I let out a heavy breath and leaned forward, placing my hands on my knees to catch my breath. Raph was breathing heavily for a few seconds, then he turned to look at Leo, who also looked a tiny bit winded. Or maybe he was just trying to process the whole thing, like me. Raph then smirked at him and reached out his hand for Leo to smack.

"Nice moves, Hamato!" Leo raised a brow at Raph, seemed a little unsure at first, then smiled and smacked his hand against Raph's in mix of a handshake and a high five.

"Nice moves, Kuruma!" Mikey looked up at them, looking pretty puzzled.

"You two know each other?" Leo shook his head and shrugged.

"I've seen him around a few times at my dad's dojo, and of course we see each other around here, but we don't really talk or anything." Raph shook his head and smacked Leo hard on the back.

"Yeah, I always figured you didn't have the spine to use the moves your dad taught you outside of that dojo. But I guess I was wrong." Leo half-glared at Raph, but he didn't seem to notice or care. He came up to me and placed his hand on my back. "You okay?" I nodded, took another deep breath and tried to steady my voice.

"Y-yeah. Yeah, I'm okay. Just a little shaken up. I've, eh, never really been in a fight before. I mean, I got beat up once, but I've never actually done anything like _that_." Raph shrugged with a smirk.

"That's because the adrenaline kicked in. Don't worry, you get used to it. It has to happen at some point when you get involved in fights." Leo raised an eyebrow at him and placed his hands on his sides.

"And you would know, wouldn't you? Why did you help us, anyway? Don't you always pick fights, not try to stop them?" Raph glared at Leo with clear frustration and offense in his eyes, previous camaraderie forgotten.

"Oh, so that's what this is, huh? Big old Raph, always picking on the kids weaker than him, right?" He shoved Leo on the shoulder. "Just so you know, Mr. Teacher's Pet, I only fight with bullies and troublemakers so they won't pick on the weaker kids. Or when someone tries to fight with me, then I will fight back! At least I don't fight a kid who can't see or do anything to defend himself. That's just cowardly." Mikey picked up his skateboard and placed it under his arm.

"Didn't seem to stop you yesterday when you were picking on Donnie. What was that all about?" That took the wind right out of Raph's metaphorical sails, but before he could answer, I got up from leaning forward, hands on my knees, and waved Mikey off.

"It's okay, Mikey, it doesn't matter anymore. We had a, uh," I looked over at Raph for a second, then turned back to Mikey, "a small talk yesterday after school and, um, we're cool now." I turned to look at Raph over my shoulder. "Right?" He looked surprised that I didn't tell them what actually happened yesterday after school, then smirked and nodded slightly.

"Right. We're cool." I bent down to grab my bag, placed the strap over my shoulder and smiled as genuinely as I could at him without looking too sappy.

"And, for what it's worth, thank you for coming to help us with Hun. You didn't have to, though." He shrugged and looked away and rubbed the back of his neck, looking uncomfortable.

"Hey, I couldn't just let him bash your brains out when you couldn't fight back." Then he smirked and nudged my shoulder with his fist. "Though for someone who's obviously untrained, you got good fighting instincts. Not many kids in our class that can take on Hun like that." I didn't know whether to be offended that he didn't think I could defend myself or thankful for him praising my instincts. But instead of voicing either of these things, I just asked him,

"What do you mean, 'untrained'?" He shrugged and walked off to pick up his bag, which he had thrown aside before he came up to get involved.

"Well, you know, untrained. I mean, in self defence. Martial Arts. I mean, I'm not an expert, but you don't look like you're taking lessons in martial arts." I shook my head.

"No, not really. I don't know if there was a martial arts place back where I lived in Northampton. At least, none that I heard of." Leo placed a hand on my shoulder and smiled.

"Well, if you're interested, you should talk to my dad. He's the best teacher you could find in Manhattan. He trained his whole life in Japan under a real Ninja Master, and now he's training kids to become ninjas too! I mean, if they want to, of course." He said the last part with an awkward chuckle and Raph rolled his eyes with a tolerant smile.

"Yeah, he's really good. Probably one of the best. But yeah, you should totally check him out. He could at the very least teach you enough so you can handle bullies like Hun." I smiled. That sounded pretty cool.

"Yeah, that'd be really good."

Mikey squealed in excitement. "Ooh! That sounds so cool!" He turned to Leo. "You think he could teach me, too?" Leo had to take a step back so Mikey wouldn't make him trip as he got closer to his face.

"Uh, yeah, sure he could. He could teach anyone who's interested in learning." Mikey squealed even louder and started to bounce around in excitement, saying something about how he had to convince his mom to let him take the classes. Raph stared at him, then turned to Leo.

"He's... unique." Leo nodded with a straight face.

"Ooh yeah." I turned to look at the school clock and grabbed them both by the arm.

"Guys, come on! We'll be late for class!" Leo reigned in Mikey and we ran into the school building before the bell would ring again. But throughout the day we all kinda stuck together. We sat at desks close to each other at any break, or during lunch we sat together or played together. Raph taught me the best ways to throw a dodgeball that would almost always guarantee a hit, Leo showed me his Space Heroes comic (which made Raph roll his eyes and gag) and Mikey taught me how to at least stand on a skateboard and turn both left and right on it without falling. And I told them about all the fun stuff I had done while I still lived in Northampton. Climbing trees, fishing, swimming, playing hide and seek in the woods, camping by the lake, lighting fires under a starlit sky, and so much else.

At the end of the day it almost felt sad that we all had to go to our own homes, but it felt pretty good to know that when I came to school again tomorrow, I would have at least three good friends waiting to meet me, too. My three first, and best, friends.

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 **A/N: Would you believe me if I said I was worried that this chapter would be too short? I guess that's happens when you get hit by inspiration. Oh well, at least part 2 is finally done. We'll see where the story goes from here. Like I said, I will try to come up with an actual story, but I guess the next chapters are gonna be more about the boys and how they live, as well as their connection with Master Splinter (A.K.A Leo's dad, but as anyone really surprised by that) and some other stuff we need to know before more stuff happens.**

 **Anyway, till next time! I hope you enjoyed this chapter and please review, favorite and follow! G'night everyone!**


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